A Question of Honor

While tending to the wounded on the battlefields of France during World War I, Bess Crawford discovers that the officer who killed five people in India and England is still alive, and, setting out to clear her father's name, instead makes a horrific discovery that changes everything.

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I read this complex book when it first came out, before I read any other Bess Crawford book. While I pretty much understood each event, I didn't understand the book's meaning. Now I've read all those before it so I decided to reread it. I'm very glad I did because it's one of the best. It goes a long ways to demonstrate what "the honor of the regiment" really meant, and why Simon became attached to "Colonel Sahib." To say nothing of why Bess became a nurse and her parents didn't stop their only child from doing it. And why the dying soldier sought her out, and she paid attention to what he told her in Urdu. The fact that her mother got involved in the case also intrigued me. The honor of the regiment was an issue for her too. I really appreciate that Bess learns and grows from her experiences. She certainly does in this book.

I am also enjoying following Bess and Simon. I started out with the last 3 books but am now going back to the books before them. Although a romance finally between Bess and Simon kind of seems inevitable, I am glad the authors are holding off.

**** stars. Bess Crawford enjoyed a wondrous childhood in India, where her father, a colonel in the British Army, was stationed on the Northwest Frontier. But an unforgettable incident darkened that happy time. In 1908, Colonel Crawford's regiment discovered that it had a murderer in its ranks, an officer who killed five people in India and England yet was never brought to trial. In the eyes of many of these soldiers, men defined by honor and duty, the crime was a stain on the regiment's reputation and on the good name of Bess's father, the Colonel Sahib, who had trained the killer.
A decade later, tending to the wounded on the battlefields of France during World War I, Bess learns from a dying Indian sergeant that the supposed murderer, Lieutenant Wade, is alive?and serving at the Front. Bess cannot believe the shocking news. According to reliable reports, Wade's body had been seen deep in the Khyber Pass, where he had died trying to reach Afghanistan. Soon, though, her mind is racing. How had he escaped from India? What had driven a good man to murder in cold blood?
Wanting answers, she uses her leave to investigate. In the village where the first three killings took place, she discovers that the locals are certain that the British soldier was innocent. Yet the present owner of the house where the crime was committed believes otherwise, and is convinced that Bess's father helped Wade flee. To settle the matter once and for all, Bess sets out to find Wade and let the courts decide.
But when she stumbles on the horrific truth, something that even the famous writer Rudyard Kipling had kept secret all his life, she is shaken to her very core. The facts will damn Wade even as they reveal a brutal reality, a reality that could have been her own fate **** I am a huge fan of Charles Todd and his two series with Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford. Both series involve World War I - Bess as a nurse and Ian as a Scotland Yard detective attempting to recover from shell shock. I have bonded with both these well developed characters. I pick up each successive novel in the series as much to find out how the protagonists are faring as to enjoy the very well written mysteries. This is #5 in the Bess Crawford series. As always I recommend starting with the first book to appreciate the pain, growth, and accomplishments in each character.

bookfanatic1979
Sep 10, 2013

I had a difficult time following the plot this time. I never quite caught on to the motives behind the Wade family’s deaths and the entire “railroad employees” plot point was totally lost on me. Having said that, following along with Bess and Simon was so much fun that I didn’t even mind. Am I the only one wishing for a romantic end between these two?